At first, the thought of watching a performance of women fully-naked on stage shocked me but the dance that RoseAnne Spradlin created was far beyond just nudity. The whole performance was a new and eye-opening experience. The dancers along with the staging, costumes, lighting, and music all journeyed through many ways, as I interpreted, women think and feel.
At the beginning, Rebecca Serrel Cyr with her guitar and silver beads, along with the dark music, dim lighting, and mirrors, portrayed confidence she felt not by what she was wearing- or in this case, not wearing- but rather with the acts she was preforming on the stage. As the audience trickled into the space, Cyr was not dressed, playing long, low notes on her bass guitar in a staccato manner. Her demeanor was calm and rather indifferent to those around her. She seemed content in her own world. When the performance began, the lights were dim and focused on her. The musicians accompanied Cyr’s movements of putting on silver beaded headpiece and shoulder gear. The music was soft and steady as Cyr strutted across the stage as if it were a fashion runway. She had on a strong, bold face. She represented elegance in her broad steps and straight lines that demanded the audience’s attention. It was a great start to the performance as there were many more strong fashion runway-like struts to come.
The three other women (Natalie Green, Rebecca Warner, and Rebecca Wender) wore different costumes and joined Cyr on stage, which started to display different manners of expressing the thoughts and emotions that women feel such as insecurity and vulnerability. Green came in a fur coat, Wender in a black coat and black lace, and Warner in a skirt and blue tape across her bare chest. All three of these women far more clothed than Cyr but still not fully dressed. They strutted the stage with no expression but had a sway to their body and heads. Each reminded me of a pendulum moving back and forth creating a sense of time passing. The dancers were so grave in their facial expressions as if the days were passing right by. At times, the dancers would leap into the air, perhaps expressing a search of strength that can only be achieved with support from others. They all moved to this dark and slow melody that really captured your attention. Each crescendo or accented note would make you search around on stage to find a contrast movement to their continuous struts and leaps in the air. When the dancers would stomp on the stage or convulse on the floor, you felt pain and vulnerability wash over you. When the dancers at some point shed off all their clothes, a climax was reached with a final mood of happiness. They walked around more confidently; as if they were more vulnerable with the little clothes they had on previously. The words that the singers were singing were: “accept me for what I am, accept me for the things I do”. The whole concept of nudity was no longer attached to vulnerability rather being clothed was. The dancers left the stage undressed and all smiles.
The last part of the dance really focused on how women deal with the interaction of others. The dancers came in all dressed in different costumes: Cyr in a lace and blue flowy material dress, Green in a beige and black high collar dress, Warner in a red and black stripped outfit, and Warner in a black shimmery wrap top. They all started off walking a catwalk. A sense of conformity came about as they walked in synchronized motions. Then, there were momentary outbursts of stomping and even screaming at a point. There was an irritation to this random movements that made you feel as if their encounter with other women caused them a sense of insecurity within themselves and chaotic thoughts to run through your mind. As I watched these loud outbursts, I felt as these dancers were just women judging each other while still feeling insecure about themselves, as many women feel on a daily basis. When they were just jumping around, the dancers looked like particles bumping into each other and reacting to each other’s movements. This reminded me of life. Their movements were random but when there was an encounter between two or more of the dancers, there was a scene created. No matter how random your decisions or journeys are, when there is a meeting up of two or more people, there is a connection, allowing each person to have a role, purpose, or reason to be there.
As I watched this performance, I let my mind just think, interpret, and feel the movements of the dancers, the tone of the music, and catch sight of the whole composition. Although I was in a state of confusion immediately after the performance, I had all these thoughts floating around in my head that I was compelled to write out all that I could on my phone on the train ride home. A movement in this last part that I really gravitated towards was when Natalie Green was stepping over the bodies of the other three dancers that were on the floor. It instantly conjured up the feeling of how there is always that one woman that will do anything to succeed even if that means stepping over others. These movements along with so many of the other movements in the performance made me think of the inner working of women’s minds. I really enjoyed the performance and it allowed me to explore experiencing a performance not just with my eyes and ears but really trying to find my own interpretations and explore my own thoughts.
